Some embodiments described herein relate generally to load balancing of VLAN traffic in converged wired and wireless networks.
In some known networks that include multiple VLANs and core devices, devices associated with a VLAN are typically distributed across multiple subnets associated with different core devices. To route VLAN traffic in such known networks, all core devices typically advertise their subnet routes for VLANs to upstream routers, which then send downstream VLAN traffic to all core devices using, for example, Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routing. In such a method, however, some of the VLAN traffic crosses inter-core links to be forwarded towards destined users, wasting bandwidth of inter-core links and excessively occupying ports of the core devices. Additionally, accounting and policing functions for traffic of a VLAN are implemented at multiple core devices in a distributed fashion, which increases the complexity of core devices and makes it difficult to manage VLAN traffic.
To solve the problem of VLAN traffic crossing inter-core links, some other known networks implement a host-routing solution for core devices to advertise host-specific routes. Such a host-routing solution, however, typically leads to the significant increase in the number of routing table entries and inefficient use of routing protocols.
Accordingly, a need exists for methods and apparatus that enable centralized accounting and policing for VLAN traffic at an anchoring point, and load balancing of VLAN traffic with efficient inter-core link utilization without the significant increase in the number of routing table entries.